The Kiwanis Club of Granville is establishing a community sugar maple grove to support future youth programs. We acquired several thousand 2 year-old maple seedlings from the ODNR State Nursery in Marietta in late March/early April 2009 that were planted with community involvement on a sunny Saturday, April 18th 2009 at the Township’s Salt Run property located between SR-16 and Spring Valley Drive (just west of Sunset Dr.). Kiwanis will maintain this sugar bush over the coming decades, and expect to be able to tap the mature trees in approximately 30 years.

This planting will be in the form of a Memorial Grove with further details forthcoming once the leasing agreement is finalized between the Granville Trustees and Granville Kiwanis.

Along with this project, Kiwanis provided seedlings at no cost to area schools and non-profits. Individually packaged with help from the local Boy Scouts, all elementary and middle school students in the area were given a seedling and instructions for planting in support of Earth Day. We are also working with area non-profits, for example churches and institutions like Kendal to provide seedlings for their own plantings.

The most noticeable Kiwanis project is our annual Fourth of July Celebration; however, we also sponsor area youth programs such as Scouts and Rec Commission teams as part of our Youth Development focus, and are involved in community projects such as annual roadside cleanups along major roadways. As a part of the latter, we offered to provide free seedlings to all landowners for planting alongside our rural and scenic roadways in areas compatible with utility rights-of-way, of which many community members took interest.

We are very grateful for the community who were involved in the planting, seedling packaging and deer guard construction on April 19th. The Club and community worked very hard and can pride in their achievement. Many enjoyed the act of working together and took pride in their investment to the future of Granville.

Further information will be available on the Kiwanis website, www.GranvilleKiwanisClub.org, Send questions and requests for further ordering details to GranvilleMaples@gmail.com, or contact a Granville Kiwanian.